https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/23665345.appeal-relatives-whinny-hill-disaster-anniversary-approaches/Are you related to any of those who perished in this disaster ? Some relatives emigrated to Australia and USA among others but some may still live locally or in another part of the UK.
The 175 th Anniversary of the Whinny Hill Colliery Explosion - 28 October 1848
Plans are to hold the commemoration at the pit site on 28th October 2023 this year,
A memorial plaque with the victims’ names will be placed near where the mine was, and a service including a performance of Gresford, also known as the Miner’s Hymn which was written in 1936 to commemorate a similar disaster that happened at the titular colliery in Wrexham in 1934.
Whinny Hill Colliery was owned by the Haematite Mining Company, and on October 28, 1848, thirty men and boys were killed in a freak explosion. At the inquest into the men’s deaths, evidence was given that the colliery was in a very dangerous state and the atmosphere, foul to within thirty-five yards of the shaft. The accident took place when a workman took the top off his lamp to light his pipe.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bath-chronicle/128624019/Sandra